In a surprising announcement, Nokia revealed on Wednesday that the Nokia Lumia 610 on Orange will be the first Windows Phone on the market to support Near Field Communication, more commonly known as NFC. Interestingly, the feature will debut in the Finnish manufacturer’s lowest-end handset, rather than a device like the Lumia 800 or Lumia 900.

The Nokia Lumia 610 NFC will support all of the features you’d expect from an NFC-equipped smartphone, such as the ability to pair with and read other devices. The phone has already been certified by MasterCard PayPass and Visa payWave, allowing Lumia 610 NFC owners to take full advantage of the system’s financial transaction benefits. It will also work with Nokia’s accessories like the Play 360°, BH-221, and Essence.

The Windows Phone OS doesn’t support NFC, so Nokia accomplished this task by “adding an NFC software stack on top of the Windows Phone platform.” The company isn’t new to NFC, having experimented with the technology since 2003. Many of its Symbian and Nokia Belle devices have supported NFC as well, including the upcoming 808 PureView.

What are your opinions on NFC? Is it a crucial feature all smartphones should have? A gimmick? Something in between?